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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Matt's question about the U of T pension plan also sounded to good to be true to me so I looked on their website. The pension does not provide the value of the full salary, but rather what I've pasted below from the website:

1. Highest Average Salary/Wages is the annualized average of your highest thirty-six (36) completed months of
salary/wages, while a member of the Pension Plan, during your current span of employment with the University, prior to
your Early or Normal Retirement Date. “Salary/Wages” means your gross regular monthly salary before deductions,
annualized to 12 months for sessional employees and to the 100% salary/wages equivalent for part-time employees. “Gross
regular monthly salary” includes Academic Administrative Stipends, but excludes all other payments to a maximum salary
limit set out in the Pension Plan, currently set at $150,000.
2. Average Canada Pension Plan Earnings Ceiling is the average of the Ceiling established by the Federal Government for
Canada Pension Plan purposes during the last thirty-six(36) months of participation in the Plan prior to your retirement.
3. Pensionable Service means the total of all of the years you have been participating in the Plan, and any earlier University of
Toronto Pension Plans during your current span of employment (excluding participation in the historical part-time Pension
Plan prior to July 1, 1987). Effective July 1, 1987, part-time employees accrue pensionable service at a rate equivalent to
their percentage of full-time worked.
Your annual unreduced pension is calculated as:
• 1.6% of your Highest Average salary/wages up to the Average Canada Pension Plan Earnings Ceiling
• 2.0% of your Highest Average salary/wages which exceed the Average Canada Pension Plan Earnings Ceiling
• Multiplied by your years of Pensionable Services
The lower percentage app
Read Answer Asked by Carla on June 06, 2016
Q: I just wanted to comment about the Portfolio Review that you did for me a few months ago. I wasn't certain what to expect but I really did feel I had gotten good value. It was informative and thoughtful. I liked that it was a suggestion of what I could be doing. It was a bonus to be able to ask questions that pertains to my specific situation.
In my case, I needed a "kick in the butt" to start really PLANNING for retirement and to reduce my risk exposure. This review is so thorough that it took me several readings to really filter the information. Awesome job 5I!!! Highly recommended!
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on June 06, 2016
Q: My number one worry about investing and retirement is my wife's defined pension at the University of Toronto. It's too good to be true. Here it is: she started working there at 30 years old and now she's 34. Every months, she puts 400$ into that pension and the university puts 200$. At 62, she will get for the rest of her life an amount equal to the highest salary she has made there. Right now, that would be 80k. How can a pension afford this?! At 62, she will have contributed 230k and with a 6% return, the pension will have grown it to 700k by the time she retires. Not nearly enough to pay her 80k a year for the rest of her life! Now here is a RED FLAG: Last year, they reduced by 50% how much the university contributes to it. Before, they used to match her contribution by 100%. Someone messed up. Can we trust this plan? Can you see how the pension can make those numbers work?
Read Answer Asked by Matt on June 06, 2016
Q: When I look at the last 10 years of Cineplex data, I see a plodding yearly price increase without any particularly exciting price swings, a continuous series of modest quarterly profits with few exceptions, a series of fairly regular dividend increases - in a word DULL!

Do you think that they'll continue to be similarly dull? Can you point me to 4 or 5 companies that might be similarly dull over the next 3 to 5 years? I could use some dull (other than financials, where I'm a bit over-weight) to add to my portfolio.

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on June 03, 2016
Q: I have the following 4 companies in a conservative, "steady-eddy" portfolio: T, SPB, SLF, and BNS.

I have cash to add two more Canadian companies. What would you recommend in order to add some diversification to the above 4 but to maintain a conservative portfolio?

Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Robert on June 03, 2016
Q: Hi Peter & Team!
Please could you list some companies that have exceptional high quality management and own a reasonably high level of the outstanding shares. Thanks.
denzil
Read Answer Asked by Denzil on June 02, 2016
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